Blog 2/22

I thought A Brief History of English written by Paul Roberts was very interesting because the first sentence, “No understanding of the English language can be very satisfactory without a notion of the history of the language,” fit perfectly with the research paper I had just written about my great aunt coming to America. She had no knowledge of the English language and I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to be thrown into a school setting not knowing anything. Especially back then when schools were more “Americanized” rather than diverse with a lot of culture; she and my grandmother must have had an extremely difficult time.
Old World, New World by Bryson, really got me thinking when he points out that O.K, OK, and okay are used in so many different ways in the English language. I know I use many sayings throughout the day. It never really occurred to me how much our culture uses that word as space fillers, like Bryson points out; or to describe how lunch was or how our day was. It really fascinated me that Okay was the most “widespread of all English words”. I also think it’s very interesting how many languages emerged from other languages with different twists and turns to them. Every language has a connection and root from another language which I think is pretty cool. Plus, if you pay enough attention to those changes and roots it is easier to learn new languages because you apply the different roots from other languages that you know.
“How big is the English language?” In Order Out of Chaos, also written by Bryson, I began to think that the English language is bigger than we can measure. Yes, there are thousands of words in the dictionary, but what about the words we use day to day, such as slang, or saying and words that are popular in a certain region that aren’t in the dictionary. There is no way to indicate how many words exist in our language. I also thought, is it possible for an average student to have a vocabulary of 150,000 when a professor ( from what Bryson stated) , only has 30,000? Is it because as younger people we’re exposed to more vocabulary and slang than just what we are taught? It seems a little bit too extreme to be possible. After all, professors have gone through higher education than a current student and are elders. But, it’s definitely an intriguing argument.

Language of Love

In a young woman’s life, one of the most important languages to learn and master, is the language of love. This language is almost impossible to perfect, but, is probably what every girl strives to learn. As a girl looking for love, myself, I’ve come to the conclusion that trying to learn and communicate it just between words and body language, is almost as complicated as trying to order from McDonald’s in Spanish after only a few days of classes. In class and life there’s that unsettling feeling of not knowing what’s right or if the correct path has been taken. Unfortunately, when it comes to Spanish there is a right and wrong answer, but maybe the comprehension of how to come upon that answer is slightly blurry, just like the path to come upon our perfect mate. The whole process seems to be the guess and check method that was taught back in elementary school.
In 3rd grade there always seemed to be two love birds that got caught passing notes. Once they were opened by the teacher, because very rarely was no one caught, most would read, “Do you like me, check yes or no,” and this is where at a very young age we are taught to always find the answer to love, but an answer that seems so inexplicable. However, that one little note gave some sort of reassurance that we were on the right track. Yet, as I get older it makes me wonder how two people, who speak completely different languages, know when they’ve found love just by the way they interact with each other, and it’s almost more complicated to love someone who speaks the same language.
The world of dating and trying to find love runs parallel with the million ways to conjugate a verb. Is love more difficult to find being American and speaking English because our language is the hardest to learn? Or do we make it more complicated for ourselves? It seems so simple for everyone else. But here, we are in a country where people are forced to become the perfect spouse instead of being loved for who they already are. I, myself, own about a dozen books on relationships, and what guys are looking for, and I’m only 19 years old! From He’s just not that into you to The Game: Penetrating the secret society of pickup artists, these authors try to teach us the language of love and communication, but does it really work? Is it as simple as reading a book, and are answers going to be found? And is there a right and wrong answer when it comes to who pulls at your heart strings?
Once in a relationship, communication is key. Miscommunication is just about the same as speaking different languages, which in America we don’t seem to be very accepting of other cultures to begin with, so imagine what it would do to a relationship— train wreck. This is where problems occur and selective listening come into play. Even if both partners are speaking the same language, it would almost seem that if one is speaking English, the other is only hearing Spanish. At this day and age miscommunication is possibly one of the easiest things to come across. We have so many ways to communicate whether it be with our words, through a text message, email, instant message, or raw body language, there is always a way to misinterpret what point is really trying to be made. Almost any written form of communication has flaws because the words, the tone, the way the message was formatted may be taken in a negative way. Therefore always vocalize it.
When it comes to love, we all speak the same language, it’s the heart beat of each other. Whether we still guess and check, read books for advice, get caught up in a text message rumble, or misinterpret what others say, the beauty is, “I love you” means the same in every language, and that language, is one worth learning.